alleyrand as prompted partly by a wish to sip to the full the
sweets of revenge for the occupation of Moscow, but mainly by the
resolve to mark time until Marmont's corps had been brought over.

Now that the head was struck off Napoleon's lance, the Czar repulsed
all notion of a Regency, but declared that he was ready to grant
generous terms to Napoleon if the latter abdicated outright. "Now,
when he is in trouble," he said, "I will become once more his friend
and will forget the past." In conferences with Napoleon's
representatives, Alexander decided that Napoleon must keep the title
of Emperor, and receive a suitable pension. The islands of Corfu,
Corsica, and Elba were considered for his future abode: the last
offered the fewest objections; and though Metternich later on
protested against the choice of Elba, the Czar felt his honour pledged
to this arrangement.[452]

Napoleon himself now began to yield to the inevitable. On hearing the
news of Marmont's defection, he sat for some time as if stupefied,
then sadly remarked: "The ungrateful man: well! he will be more
unhappy than I." But once more, on the 6th, the fighting instinct
comes uppermost. He plans to retire with his faithful troops beyond
the Loire, and rally the corps of Augereau, Suchet, and Soult. "Come,"
he cries to his generals, "let us march to the Alps." Not one of them
speaks in reply. "Ah," replies the Emperor to their unspoken thoughts;
"you want repose: have it then. Alas! you know not how many
disappointments and dangers await you on your beds of down." He then
wrote his formal abdication:

"The allied Powers having declared that the Emperor was the sole
obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, the Emperor,
faithful to his oaths, declares that he renounces, for himself and
his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, and that there is no
sacrifice, not even that of life, which he is not ready to make
for the interest of France."

The allies made haste to finish the affair; for even now they feared
that the caged lion would burst his bars. Indeed, the trusty secretary
Fain asserts that when on Easter Monday, the 11th, Caulaincourt
brought back the allies' ratification of this deed, Napoleon's first
demand was to retract the abdication. It would be unjust, however, to
lay too much stress on this strange conduct; for at that time the
Emperor's mind was partly unhinged by maddening tumults.

His anguish increase